onel Coote
undertook the siege of Chilliput, which in two days was surrendered by
the chevalier de Tilly; himself and his garrison remaining prisoners of
war. Such also was the fate of fort Timmery; which being reduced, the
colonel prosecuted his march to Arcot, the capital of the province,
against the fort of which he opened his batteries on the fifth day of
February. When he had carried on his approaches within sixty yards of
the crest of the glacis, the garrison, consisting of two hundred and
fifty Europeans, and near three hundred sepoys, surrendered as prisoners
of war; and here the English commander found two-and-twenty pieces of
cannon, four mortars, and a great quantity of all kinds of military
stores. Thus the campaign was gloriously finished with the conquest of
Arcot; after the French army had been routed and ruined by the diligence
of colonel Coote, whose courage, conduct, and activity, cannot be
sufficiently admired. The reader will perceive, that, rather than
interrupt the thread of such an interesting narration, we have ventured
to encroach upon the annals of the year one thousand seven hundred and
sixty.

STATE OF THE BELLIGERENT POWERS IN EUROPE.

Having thus followed the British banners through the glorious tracks
they pursued in different parts of Asia and America, we must now convert
our attention to the continent of Europe, where the English arms, in
the course of this year, triumphed with equal lustre and advantage.
But first it may be necessary to sketch out the situation in which the
belligerent powers were found at the close of winter. The vicissitudes
of fortune with which the preceding campaign had been chequered, were
sufficient to convince every potentate concerned in the war, that
neither side possessed such a superiority in strength or conduct as was
requisite to impose terms upon the other. Battles had been fought with
various success; and surprising efforts of military skill had been
exhibited, without producing one event which tended to promote a general
peace, or even engender the least desire of, accommodation. On the
contrary, the first and most violent transports of animosity had by this
time subsided into a confirmed habit of deliberate hatred; and every
contending power seemed more than ever determined to protract the
dispute; while the neutral states kept aloof, without expressing
the least desire of interposing their mediation. Some of them were
restrained by considerati